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Random News: April 2006

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Random News: April 2006

Status Report

from GalCiv2 Forums

I don't know how many people here read the Journals section but that's where we put up most of our day to day development stuff.  Though by "We" I mean the entire GalCiv II team though it seems like I'm the only one with enough free time to blog about it (under my Draginol account from JoeUser.com).

Next week we put out 1.1. We've been releasing beta builds like crazy since the end of last month.  Future updates won't be quite so extravagant. We just wanted to make sure people knew how serious we were about adding user-requested features even after release.

More reviews have been coming in. We've been very pleased with most of them.  The G4 XPlay review was a real shocker. 5 out of 5. I've never seen a game get a 5 out of 5 on there so we were pretty jazzed about that.  Our friends at NeoTechGaming had a nice review up of the game as well.  Computer Games Magazine gave us a 4.5 out of 5.  The CGW review should be out soon too, they aren't currently doing ratings though so we'll just use this made up quote of editor in chief Jeff Green "6 out of 5, greatest achievement in human history." ;)

Meanwhile, our developers have been coding away on these updates. But what about the art team? Most of them are on Society. But what about our other artists? One idea we've been toying around with is a "Ship Pack".  Basically a bunch of hulls and components for ships that would allow people to create a bunch of new ships that we would sell for $9 or something.  We'd be curious on people's thoughts on that.  Art is expensive and we'd rather do it as a one time thing as opposed to a bunch of smaller groups at $2 or something each.

After next week, the team will start working on 1.2.  We have a list already of tweaks and additions.  We probably won't have a long public beta test of it like we did with 1.1. New users come to our forums, see a ton of "crash" reports and think "Oh man, this game must be buggy" not realizing they're reading beta reports.

Speaking of forums, we realize that our forums are like the devil. We are looking at a redesign soon. But we are listening to people's ideas.  Our forum system works across all our sites and allows for a lot of customization - which we'll be using to make it easier and faster to use in the coming weeks).

That's all for now. !FROGCARE!

60,480 views 139 replies
Reply #126 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
OK.. here is how I see it.

Yes, I would buy a 9 dollar ship pack. Providing that it contained a good amount of new stuff, and that I could either buy it in a store, or order an actual CD from yall. I would not want it as a download.

However, I see where people are coming from when they say that it would lead to negative publicity. Some people are real losers when it comes to stuff like this. The way I see it.. if it costs alot to create the content.. then charge for it. Its our choice whether or not we buy. As long as im not being charged for things that dont require a charge, meaning.. as long as im not just being charged cause yall feel like I will pay for it and its a good way to get my money, then im cool with it. Some people just throw a hissy though.

Personally.. I think you should do it, and just make sure that there is a good explaination for it provided. People made a big huff about the Horses in Oblivion because they felt like they were being charged for something just because the developers knew they could get a bit more of their money. If you actually explain to people and make it known that there is a 9 dollar fee because it costs alot to create new art for the game, and you have to charge or you will be losing money... then i think you will find that alot more people will be open to it, and only a few will rock the boat.
Reply #127 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Based on the above - I would STILL buy the pack. I think $9 is quite reasonable.

I would like to see organic ship hulls and jewelry as I said. I would like to see organic hulls added as a high level tech, with better stats as well as a different look.

Similarly, the metallic looking equipment modules might look out of place on an organic hull.

I would like to see a few higher end technologies added on to the tech tree with high power organic beams, mass-drivers, missile launchers, armour, sensors etc. This would be so high technology species could have organic technology and a consistent theme.

The ideal from an aesthetic point of view would be to have the variety and flexibility that would enable a lot of different appearances. The kind of variety there was in 'for example' Babylon 5.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #129 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I had always assumed unique ships for the other 5 races would be part of the expansion. Would I buy them seperate? Yes, probably. 9 bucks isn't unreasonable (you can't even go see a movie for less than that.... alone!).

But I have to wonder, if the ships are a seperate item, what is going to be in the expansion? We know espionage and destabilization are getting a major upgrade, but that won't be enough for a whole expansion pack. If seperating out the ships from the expansion pack makes room for more content in the expansion I'm all for it, but I'd need to know that that content is to judge.
Reply #130 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would definitely buy it. If we are talking another 6 hulls, I guess I'd pay 4 or 5 bucks. For a dozen or twenty, well, then 9 bucks is fine.
Reply #131 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
$9 is more than I would pay for a ship pack put together by the artists who just don't happen to be busy on Society.

This is probably for the same reason that I'd never pay for that Oblivion content -- mods. Look at Morrowind mods -- there are THOUSANDS of them. I installed so many the game was hardly the same, but was 20 times better. Oblivion is going the same way, mods are pouring out. With the release of 1.1, and with it a better supported mod system for GC2, I see this game going the same way. With what I anticipate as scores of ships, parts, and improvements from artists pationate enough about the game to release content for free, I have a difficult time imagining extra ships worthy enough to make up a 25% increase in price for the game.

On the other hand, I spend approximately 25% of my game or more in the ship editor, so I *do* enjoy the ships -- and I would love to be pleasantly surprised and proven wrong in my earlier assesment.

Speaking of forums, we realize that our forums are like the devil.


Thank you for acknowledging this!

New users come to our forums, see a ton of "crash" reports and think "Oh man, this game must be buggy" not realizing they're reading beta reports.


I am not on a dev team for any major game with a public beta, so I really can't say for certain. But I'd be willing to guess that a public beta *does* improve the quality of the release -- otherwise, no one would find it worth the hassle. You can most likely mitigate the flood of bug reports for the beta by relegating them to a "beta" forum -- then new users won't be so confused by all the crash reports. Just keep the beta forum bug reports from making their way to the sidebar on the front page though.
Reply #132 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
For forums, I'd love to see the subcategories displayed in seperate folders or subforums. No more of this having IDEAS and BUGS and GAME all in one giant pile as the default view. Something that works like Apolyton (which works like 90% of the forums I've ever liked) would make this user happy.

I would not pay $9 for a purely cosmetic add-on. Especially given the fact that users can create ship pieces to release as mods, that Stardock released a mini-expansion for Gal Civ I for free that added considerably more than gloss, and that I am much more interested in enhanced gameplay than in enhanced doo-dads.

I would love access to more ship pieces, but it wouldn't make me pay for a mini-expansion by itself. Neither would multiplayer, for that matter.
Reply #133 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
How much per box if you get William Shatner for some voice acting ?
Reply #134 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That said, I want to point out an initial thought that crossed my mind. I think the extra ship pack would go down a lot better after all the races have their own unique hulls. Maybe there is some lore as to why some of the civs have similar or matching hulls but as a rule, most should be unique.



As quoted above I think this is an area that will need to be addressed in detail and will likely be a (if not the) major selling point for a ship pack if it is done correctly.

On a personal note I support the idea and I'm even willing to preorder directly from Stardock if cash on hand is a concern.

Regarding the Bethesda comments, most modders are very angry at it because of being ignored and placated regarding bugs, game play issues and limitations related to it really being designed for the Xbox and not the PC community. There is very strong sediment among modders who understand the business environment that Bethesda is positioning itself to be bought out by MS as its premier RPG Xbox title despite the fact that modders are the reason that TES is a successful franchise. Many consider Beth's actions to be a huge slap in the face.
Reply #135 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That said, I want to point out an initial thought that crossed my mind. I think the extra ship pack would go down a lot better after all the races have their own unique hulls. Maybe there is some lore as to why some of the civs have similar or matching hulls but as a rule, most should be unique.


Absolutely. A lot of the current hull pieces are very samey - going for a very metallic, industrial look. Very Startrek, Battlestar Galactica, Nostromo.

We could do with some variety. In MOO3 (which was an inferior game by a long way), the races all had distinct looks. The silicon crystals had crystalline spaceships, there were snail like spaceships, etc. It would be nice to see some components here.

I am in favour of predefined ships having a consistent theme for each race. However, I believe that the PLAYER should be able to use any components or jewellery they choose.

Again - I do not want people to forget that if we are going to have visible equipment components still (lasers, drives etc.) then it will be necessary to have some way of varying their appearance. So if you develop, for example Laser I, when you include it on a ship you can choose more than one visual representation or style. For example, metallic, crystal, organic, etc.
Reply #136 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If it will be only a ship pack with only new components to design ships i won't buy it.
Personally i would buy it at a higher price (15$) only if it is a graphic pack which contains not only ship components but also unique hulls for every race, different portrait for every minor race, more texture for planets and something else to customization.If the pack contains only ship components i think it will be bought only by the core fans of the game
Reply #137 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Another question is if this pack wll be published will it be only downloadable or it will also in retail version?If available could it be purchased through paradox for european customers because if not the total price for us european customers will be 25$ and i don't think there is anyone available to buy a cosmetic pack at 25 $
Reply #138 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If it's good value, and a lot of additional content, I'd definitely buy it. I don't know how I'll fit it in my budget, but I will. However it is just cosmetic, so I can understand when people don't want to buy it. There has to be a LOT of new content for me to buy a ship expansion, simply because it doesn't add any game features, and I can play without extra ship styles.

Also considering that it's moddable, I agree with a previous poster, pretty soon we'll start seeing some very good stuff, possibly even better than what SD might come up with.

as a conclusion, it would probably be better for stardock to put all this into the expansion which they already seem to have planned.
Reply #139 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would pay the $9 for the ship pack, provided it was large and significant. But I don't doubt Stardock will make it worth our while.
I do understand that it would be tempting to not include at least some of the ship pack in the expansion, so perhaps Stardock can offer people who purchased the ship pack a $9 rebate on the expansion?

I think the the ship pack would need to include seperate models for each race.
I would also like to see organic looking hulls as Vordrak suggested and a UFO model set. I want flying saucers!